June 11, 2013

On the Phone with Jena Malone...: FFC Interviews Jena Malone

June
12, 2002|In
the six years since she played the Jodie Foster character as a young
ham radio enthusiast in Contact and Jennifer Jason
Leigh's troubled daughter in Anjelica Huston's acclaimed Bastard
Out of Carolina, Jena Malone has cornered the market on
damaged adolescent goods. Maybe you remember her giving Julia Roberts
lip in Stepmom, or asking Kevin Costner if he slept
with Kelly Preston in For Love of the Game, or
committing infanticide and pinning it on her dim boyfriend in a two-parter of TV's "Homicide". Perhaps, like me, you're a big fan of Donnie
Darko, to which she brings the balance of calm--she is the
film's earthy centre.

The
endearingly self-deprecating, indisputably gifted Malone is now
appearing in Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,
a reunion of sorts with Foster, who's featured in a supporting role as
a peg-legged nun. The film has a strange intertextual relationship to Donnie
Darko with the backstory of Malone's Margie Flynn, plus it's
interspersed with animated sequences by "Spawn" creator and toy guru
Todd McFarlane, and the picture foists William Blake on the
unsuspecting youth demo. In other words, go see it.

Before
I commence with a transcript of my recent telephone Q&A with
Ms. Malone, let me say that I wasn't sure how to broach the subject of
Jena's hard-won legal emancipation from her mother and ex-handler, the
details of which you can find elsewhere. To my surprise, she alluded to
it towards the end of our interview; the overall impression I got from
fifteen minutes with her is that if there's an actress not yet old
enough to vote (she'll be eighteen on November 21st
of this year) capable of managing a thriving career, Jena Malone is she.

FILM FREAK CENTRAL: How did you come to be in The
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys?
JENA MALONE: Well, I read the script. My agent sent it to
me, and I had heard that Jodie was involved as a producer, and that Egg
Films (Foster's now-defunct prodco
-Ed.) was going to be doing it. Immediately I was excited because I
knew they only pick projects that they love. And then, after I read it
I fell in love with it, it's such a beautiful depiction of what it's
like to be young. They really allow these characters to be fully
fleshed-out, complicated young people, which is just a rare thing. And
I auditioned a couple times. I went in three different times and I
thought I sucked.

(laughs)
But I take it you're proud of the finished product?
I really... I have a problem liking stuff that I do. Because I think
there's a certain amount of, you know, unconscious effort in your
inflections. This is one where I was actually really pleased, and I
wasn't thinking I was as God-awful as I usually think that I am. The
credit's really due to Peter Care, he really created an environment
where we could feel safe and comfortable going to these places and
living in these characters--he really made it feel real.

So
normally you have a hard time watching yourself on screen?
Well, yeah, I do, actually. It's just a strange thing. It's hard for me
to be just an audience member when I'm watching because it's you when
you're young and there are these awkward things that you're revealing
to people. It's a vulnerable experience, but at the same it's
vulnerable and it's awkward because it's affecting you. But as long as
it's like that and not some sexed-up version of yourself...

Sometimes
it's weird because you're presenting these characters that are very
different from who you are. I think if I was a young girl watching [The
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys] I'd be really psyched to see a
character like this portrayed.

What do
you think of your cartoon alter ego in the film, Sorcerella?
It's great! I read the script and saw the baseline of what the
animation was supposed to be. Sorcerella, Queen of the Shadow Realm!

You met Jodie Foster before when you played a younger version of her in Contact.We
met briefly, yes. We had a meeting where we were to sit down and copy
each other's characteristics, and understand what we were supposed to
do. But basically when we first met she came in and I was sort of
curled-up on the chair tucking my hair behind my ears and all of that
and she said, "All right, I'm just going to copy you, actually." I was
just like, Wow, I feel like I have nothing to do now. But this was the
first time we were able to work together.

And
you say she was one of the reasons you pursued the project?Just
knowing that she's involved makes me feel that before I even read the
script I know it's going to be something that's actually honest and
truthful. If I could have her on every project, I would love to. (laughs)
I think sometimes working with adults, it's hard to find people who have
that mutual respect for young actors and treat them as they are and
don't belittle them and talk down to them. That's one of the best
things you can do as a producer and a director and a fellow actor is
just to see [young actors] for who they are. Certainly mutual respect
is a better environment in which to begin. Definitely Egg Films really
endorses that. Peter Care was a firm believer in allowing us to feel
like we could make decisions and that we could
have points of view and that we were allowed to have opinions about
things.

Would
you consider that a rare quality, or have you been lucky in this
business?Rare
absolutely. I've had a lot of really interesting directors--not to
mention any names--where they bribe you and say, "We'll give you five
dollars if you do a take well," and they give you baseball cards--

(laughs)

There's an element to it
that's just kind of...

Condescending?Yeah,
condescending, and the bottom line is that we're all human. We're all
looking for human interaction. If you belittle someone and don't give
them the mutual respect that they deserve, it takes away that human
quality, you're looking down at them in a way that's just not a very
realistic point of view.

You've
worked with a number of veteran actresses, some in a directorial
capacity like Goldie Hawn and Anjelica Huston. Does that make you aspire
to career longevity?Does
it make me aspire to career longevity? No. What it has done is really
shown me that these women have continued to do the things that they
love. They are smart, intellectual women and they put these strong
female characters out there into the human consciousness. They
constantly take risks, they're constantly doing the things that they
love, and that's awesome. But it's too crazy, this business, to think
I'll be in it forever.

(pause)

I
dunno. It's good. I mean, I love it. I'm gonna stay in it as long as I
can continue to do the stuff that I wanna do. As soon as it starts
turning into something else, it's boring.

Is it
true you're thinking about going to college for photography in the fall?Yeah,
I am. I'm moving up there in August but I don't start school until
January. Going to a community college in Northern California, so I can
kind of hermit myself away and just have a completely different
experience from the one I've been having for the past couple of years.

Would
you perhaps like to get into directing? Something somewhat linked with
your photographic pursuits?For
me, going to study photography is just really learning to understand a
simple form of storytelling. Understanding the format, understanding
one frame, one picture, learning how to manipulate it to show what you
want in contrast to what is shown and what it captures. So, absolutely.
To me, photography's a good foundation in visual storytelling, it's
exactly what I want to be doing right now.

You
know, I feel this town really allows a lot of first-time directors. But
very rarely are you given a second chance if you only do what you want
the first time. And people capitalize on the whole young director,
first-timer thing... I really want to protect my experience in learning
what type of films that I'd want to do, I want the first thing to be
really great. Whether I'm forty-five or twenty, I want it to be
something that I'm thoroughly... Knowledgeable in? I want to be fully
ready for that experience. I have a lot more to learn before I can
direct or anything, but I want to become a better writer, I want to
become a better visual storyteller. Yeah, I have a lot more to learn.

What
about the producing aspect of the business? I know that your former
co-stars Drew Barrymore and Jodie Foster run or ran successful
production companies. It appears to be a trend among actresses who've
made a smooth transition from child stardom.You
know, I find producing sort of a heartless job. It's kind of a scary
idea to want to be so knowledgeable about the business that you see
it's 95% bullshit and 5% passion. I do think any project that in the
future I direct I need to produce. I think it's important to have that
control, the power of knowing where your film is at.

I
dunno, maybe it's just me--it could be damaging to be an actor and also
a producer because your head's in two different spaces. But I do
believe in developing projects, I do believe in going out there and
finding things and producing them from the beginning--from the bottom
to the finished product. I really don't believe in vanity producing,
just putting your name on something so that you're involved in it.
Really producing a film is finding something, taking it from conception
and then seeing it visualized, and it's a long, strenuous process and
you have to be really ready for it.

It's interesting, you can
learn a lot from it, but it's not a job that I want.
It's too crazy, this business. There are other things I want to be
knowledgeable in. It's a system that you should learn about, it's just
not a tool that I want to sharpen.

You
seem like you've really kept a good head on your shoulders for someone
who's grown up in the scary world of Hollywood.But
the scary world is all around us. Whether the walls are Hollywood or
the walls are New York or the walls are Afghanistan. It's just a scary
world, you have to know what you want from it, what your intentions
are, and know that those things continually change.

Would
it be fair to say that you're drawn to melancholic characters?Unfortunately,
being a young actor, there are really just two types out there. There
are the ones that are truthful and honest and there are the ones that
are plot devices, the stereotypes, the caricatures of what
forty-year-old writers want young people to be. Unfortunately, there
aren't too many non-dramatic pieces that really show young, interesting
characters. I find it very limiting, so the majority of stuff that I've
taken has been... I guess they're the films that I'm drawn to. I was
never really affected by the big blockbusters when I was younger. I
liked Thelma & Louise and Blue
Velvet and all those weird films.

Blue Velvet
is a great movie. Just thought I'd interject that.Yeah. I didn't see that until I was thirteen.

(!)

I don't mind, actually,
playing weird, dark, melancholy. Because, you know, that's all that's
out there that's interesting.

Walter
Chaw, the other main writer at our website, asked this of Shane West,
and I think it's a fabulous question to end on: What do you think of
your career so far?What
do I think of my career so far?! Uh... I'm
psyched that I've been able to find projects that I really love. There
were times when I was younger that I worked for the sake of working,
but I think since I've been living on my own, and since I've been fully
in control of my decisions and the choices that I make, that I've been
really conscious in knowing that I don't want to work in everything,
and I don't want to do every project out there. Also, I don't feel at
this point in my career... I don't want the starring vehicle. I don't
think I could carry a film. I've been able to find smaller, interesting
roles where you could take more risks, you don't have to carry the film
on your shoulders. I hope I can continue!